Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH COLONIAL LITERATURE
Image 2.4 | Massachusetts Bay Colony Seal
Artist | Unknown
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain
Arbella. Either before embarkation or
early in the voyage itself, Winthrop gave
his sermon A Model of Christian Charity
which envisaged a harmonious Puritan
community that would serve as guide and
model for future emigrants. Preparing
the colonists to face adversity and
temptation, the sermon also prepared
for their future society’s being built on
and guided by Christian principles. As
governor of the colony, Winthrop himself
modeled these principles through his
steadfast morality and seless concern
for others.
A Model of Christian Charity speaks
plainly and clearly of an earthly life in
the wilderness guiding towards God’s
heavenly city, the new Jerusalem.
2.4.1 A Model of Christian Charity
(1630)
WRITTEN ON BOARD THE ARBELLA, ON THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.
By the Hon. John Winthrop Esqr. In his passage (with a great company of
Religious people, of which Christian tribes he was the Brave Leader and famous
Governor;) from the Island of Great Brittaine to New-England in the North
America. Anno 1630.
A Modell hereof.
God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence, hath soe disposed of the
condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poore, some high
and eminent in power and dignitie; others mean and in submission.
The Reason hereof.
1 Reas. First to hold conformity with the rest of his world, being delighted to
show forth the glory of his wisdom in the variety and dierence of the creatures,
and the glory of his power in ordering all these dierences for the preservation and
good of the whole; and the glory of his greatness, that as it is the glory of princes to
have many ocers, soe this great king will haue many stewards, counting himself
more honoured in dispensing his gifts to man by man, than if he did it by his owne
immediate hands.
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